Kid's Health Games
Believe it or not, it really is possible to let your kids play games on the computer that teach them about their health at the same time. Three respectable sites that focus on children's health offer up some pretty fun and impressive games your child can play alone or with you.
Other People Are Reading
-
Playnormous Health Games
-
Playnormous is a game developer that works with health-research groups and U.S. Department of Agriculture information. They make animated online games that are designed to take the boredom out of learning about health and prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes in children.
Games include Food Fury, which challenges kids to choose good and bad foods; Lunch Crunch, which tests your child's ability to put together a nutritious meal; Bubble Trouble, which helps kids recognize good aerobic activities; Juice Jumble, which highlights the difference between drinks that contain fruit and those that don't; Brain Gain, which tests a range of fitness and nutrition knowledge; and Food Pyramid, which teaches kids the food groups and healthy amounts to eat.
Since the games have different levels and difficulties, kids of all ages can play. Downloadable teacher guides are also available, so that educators can use these games as learning tools in their classrooms. You can just type Playnormous.com in your web browser.
KidsHealth Game Closet
-
Non-profit organization KidsHealth is one of the web's most popular sites for information about children's health. All their games incorporate a lot of health-related information and trivia, so kids learn as they play.
Games include the Halloween Candy Game, which shows how many pieces of candy equal a day's calories; Mission Nutrition, which quizzes kids on various items in the kitchen; the Spelling Bee Game, which asks your child to spell health-related words; and Time for Bed, which investigates how much sleep animals and children need. They also have experiments, quizzes and activities for kids.
Click on the link in the References section of this article to go straight to the Game Closet page of KidsHealth.org.
Government Health Games
-
The U.S. government has its own kids' website, and a page on it dedicated to games and activities on all the governmental-department websites. Only some of the games are health-related, but those include Building Blocks for a Healthy Future, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. The games on that site are geared to preschoolers, and revolve around saying "no" to alcohol, tobacco and drugs, as well as nutrition and emotions.
The Department of Health and Human Services also has a SmallStep Kids site featuring games on healthy eating and fitness. They include the Fun Food Word Game, which allows children to create a silly story about healthy food; MyPyramid Blast Off, which lets kids choose physical activities and nutritious choices from the food pyramid; and Taz's Munch-n-Crunch, which requires your child to find healthy snacks to give the Tasmanian Devil energy.
The GirlsHealth site from the Office on Women's Health includes games like Jump & Skip, which teaches exercising for a healthy body; Snack Attack, which shows kids what foods contain calcium for stronger, healthier bones; and Mix-Up Madness, a matching game about health and fitness.
The link in the References section of this article will take you directly to the Activities and Games page of Kids.gov, which is a directory of all government website games. If you'd like to go directly to the specific departments' games pages, they can be found under the Resources section of this article.
-
